NEW DELHI: South Africa sent a T20 World Cup warning to co-hosts India after romping to a six-wicket win over the United Arab Emirates in New Delhi on Wednesday.

After restricting the UAE to 122-6 on a pitch enlivened by morning rain, South Africa raced to 123-4 in just 13.2 overs to complete a perfect group phase with four wins out of four.

Next up for Aiden Markram’s side is a repeat of the 2024 final against India in Ahmedabad on Sunday in their first match of the Super Eights.

India won the final in Barbados to lift the trophy and are firm favourites to repeat on home soil.

But South Africa have shown they are serious title contenders again, emerging top of a potentially tricky Group ‘D’ that contained New Zealand and Afghanistan.

There was a nasty moment in the 16th over when the UAE’s Alishan Sharafu was hit flush on the peak of his helmet by a Corbin Bosch bouncer that saw parts of the headgear go flying.

The batsman was cleared to continue after a concussion check and slashed Bosch’s next delivery to deep third man where it fell just short of Anrich Nortje but squirmed under him and went for four.

The moment encapsulated an uncharacteristically sloppy fiel­d­ing performance by South Africa in the dead-rubber match.

They spilled four straightforward chances in the outfield and Markram acknowledged they will need to be sharper against India.

“We let ourselves down today in the field, not up to the mark at all” said the captain.

“You don’t want to create anything mentally by not being switched on. So nice little lesson for us to learn there,” added Markram.

“I’ve got no doubt the boys will be up for it again in Ahmedabad.”

Sharafu top-scored for the UAE with 45 while, for South Africa, Dewald Brevis scored 36 and Ryan Rickelton 30.

Player of the match Bosch bowled a superb spell of 3-12 from his four overs.

Scoreboard

UAE:

A. Sharma c Maphaka b Bosch 13

M. Waseem lbw b Linde 22

A. Sharafu c Maphaka b Nortje 45

S. Khan c de Kock b Bosch 6

S. Haider c Maphaka b Nortje 6

M. Arfan c Smith b Bosch 11

D. Parashar not out 5

M. Farooq not out 1

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-4, W-8) 13

TOTAL (for six wickets, 20 overs) 122

DID NOT BAT: H. Ali, J. Siddique, M. Jawadullah

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-38 (Waseem), 2-42 (Sharma), 3-64 (Khan), 4-82 (Haider), 5-112 (Sharafu), 6-119 (Arfan)

BOWLING: Rabada 4-0-30-0, Maphaka 4-0-30-0 (4w), Nortje 4-0-28-2, Linde 4-0-17-1, Bosch 4-0-12-3

SOUTH AFRICA:

A. Markram b Ali 28

Q. de Kock c Ali b Jawadullah 14

R. Rickelton c Parashar b Farooq 30

D. Brevis c (sub) b Arfan 36

T. Stubbs not out 6

J. Smith not out 3

EXTRAS (B-4, W-2) 6

TOTAL (for four wickets, 13.2 overs) 123

DID NOT BAT: G. Linde, C. Bosch, K. Rabada, A. Nortje, K. Maphaka

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-32 (Markram), 2-56 (de Kock), 3-105 (Rickelton), 4-116 (Brevis)

BOWLING: Parashar 2-0-8-0, Siddique 2.2-0-23-0, Ali 3-0-33-1, Jawadullah 2-0-20-1, Arfan 2-0-16-1 (2w), Farooq 2-0-19-1

RESULT: South Africa won by six wickets.

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Corbin Bosch

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2026